Like the Birds
by InfernoKid
Summary: A duel between Kaiba and Yami goes horribly wrong, leading Yami to question his feelings for one particular member of their group. (Sorry, but I suck at summaries.:)) Rated T for mild language, multiple character deaths. My first upload, so please review :)


Like the Birds

As Yami played the trap card that would end the duel, he looked over at Tea. She was smiling and cheering him on, as she always was. Yami smiled back at her. Tea was a great friend to him. Always there for him, always cheering for him, always laughing along with him. But Yami couldn't dwell on Tea now, he had to finish Kaiba. He laid down the trap Sakuretsu Armour, and laid another card down as well. Kaiba sneered.

"The great Yami, snivelling over his defeat. Well, I hate to see you suffer. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack with Neutron Blast!"

Yami activated the trap card.

"Not so fast. I play Sakuretsu Armour! This allows me to destroy the attacking monster. Your Blue-Eyes is no more."

Kaiba flinched, as Tea cheered and jumped with joy. She really liked Yami, he W AS her best friend and all. Well, him _and_ Yugi. But Yami was always more... attractive, she supposed was the word.

"Then," Yami continued, "I'll play the spell Ancient Rules! This allows me to summon any monster, regardless of level. And I choose the Dark Magician! Dark Magician, attack Kaiba's Life Points directly, with Dark Magic Attack!" Yami hoped Tea saw that.

The Magician performed his attack, and Kaiba lost his Life Points, as Yami had planned. But then his life points came back, and the Dark Magician contorted, and the Ultimate Dragon flickered back into the arena, and all the cards sent to the Graveyard did too.

Kaiba's Holo-Duel Processor 3.12 had malfunctioned, big-time. The arena's lighting went out.

And then the processors exploded.

Kaiba had been taken to his own private hospital, but Yami, Yugi, Tristan and Joey were all fine. They had only sustained the most minor of scrapes. Tea, however, had been badly injured. She had been bundled into the back of an ambulance, while the medics muttered things like, "Internal bleeding," and "Cranial haemorrhaging".Some debris had evidently hit her, and had caused serious injuries. As none of her friends had been related, they weren't allowed to ride to the hospital with her.

Yami wasn't taking it well.

Yugi and the others had tried to comfort him, but they couldn't seem to calm him down. Yami seemed to think the whole mess was his fault.

"Poor guy," whispered Joey to Tristan, "He's takin' it real hard."

"Yeah, I know." Tristan replied, "I've never seen him so broken up about anything before."

Yugi, meanwhile, was desperately trying to console his friend.

"Yami, it's not your fault. You couldn't have known the arena was going to blow up like that. Nobody's to blame here, Yami."

"It's my fault, Yugi," Yami sniffed. "If only I hadn't accepted this, this, damn duel in the first place, none of this would've happened. It's all my fault."

And he began to cry again.

Yami felt so terribly guilty.

Tea, his best friend had been hurt because of him. Tea, who was always kind and always happy, had been hurt because of him. Tea, whose crystalline azure eyes never held a trace of sadness or anger, had been hurt because of him. Tea, whose beautiful face always bore a smile or a laugh, had been hurt because of him. Tea, whose face he loved, and whose eyes he adored, and who he couldn't live without, had been hurt. Because of him.

Yami stood up, eyes streaming with tears, and walked to his car.

"I'm, er, going to the hospital to see if Tea is alright. If anyone wants to come with me..."

Yugi looked at his friend, with his eyes full of grief and tears, and stood as well.

"You're in no fit state to drive, Yami. I'll come with you, and make sure you get there OK."

"Fine. Let's.." Yami sniffed, "Let's go."

Yugi got into the driver's seat and Yami sat in the passenger seat. Yugi turned the key in the ignition, and the car revved into action. As they pulled out of the Kaiba Towers' parking lot, Yugi looked at his sorrow-stricken friend.

"Yami, I hope you'll forgive me for saying this, but I've never seen you so cut up about anything before. What's going on inside your head that you're so unwilling to say out loud?"

Yami looked at Yugi and confessed.

"It's Tea. I mean, we've been close friends for so long, and it's just.. When I look at her, my mouth goes dry, my hands shake, my head spins and the butterflies in my stomach... I just don't know what it is I feel."

Yugi looked at Yami, and saw the sorrow in his eyes, but also a tenderness. He had never seen this side to Yami before. Maybe it had been there all along, but Yami had never shown it before.

"It sounds like love." Yugi said softly.

It was then that Yami realized. He did love Tea, he loved her with all his heart, but was too blind to himself to see it. After all, the moment he laid eyes on her, that first day at Domino High, so long ago, he had felt something. Something deep in the pit of his stomach, a strange, almost alien feeling, but a feeling he thought he knew. He knew now that that feeling was love, and it was the same feeling he had felt every time he had looked at her since. He knew he'd be lost without her, and he was already a bloody mess inside. He _needed_ Tea to be alright, there was no doubt about it. He'd be a broken man if anything went wrong. He had to get to that hospital to make certain Tea was alright. Yugi turned left into the hospital's parking lot, and the car halted with the screech of tyres. Yami jumped out of the car, and sprinted to the hospital's doors. He barrelled through the swinging doors, and stopped dead at the receptionists desk, with Yugi not far behind. Yugi stopped and let Yami do the talking.

"We're here," Yami wheezed, "To see.. Tea Gardner."

"Down that hallway to the left, and it's the second door on the right."

"Thanks!" Yami and Yugi took off, running down the hallway until they came to the appropriate door.

Yami opened the door, afraid of what may lie inside. The sterile _beep, beep, beep, beep_ of the heartbeat monitor reassured him that Tea was alive. There was an IV line hooked into her wrist, and an oxygen mask on her face, but other than that, Tea looked fine.

"I'll let you... have some time alone." Yugi said, and left the room quietly.

Yami strode to the hospital chair next to the bed, and held Tea's hand. He looked at her beautiful face, and how innocent she looked as she slept, and thought of all the good times they had shared. Summer vacations and Christmas breaks. Easter holidays and calm spring days. Tea, Yami, Yugi, Tristan and Joey, all savouring their friendship on those most glorious of days. Tea's life now hung in the balance, because of something Yami blamed himself for.

Yami eventually fell into a troubled sleep thinking these thoughts, and soon fell into a nightmare.

_(Begin Dreamscape)_

He was chasing Tea through a darkened forest, where every tree was dead, and no birds sang. Everything was grey or black. The only thing in colour was Tea. Her chocolate brown hair, her deep sapphire eyes and her peachy flesh. Yami chased her through the forest, accompanied by a constant _beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep___in his head. Just when he thought he had caught up with her, he would see her further ahead. It was like chasing a ghost. And still that same noise. _beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep___. He caught up to where he last saw Tea, behind a blackened oak, and saw her to his right, so very far away. And still the _beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep___would not go away. Yami ran as fast as he could towards her, the constant _beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep___pushing him on. He rounded the corner behind which he had last seen Tea and _beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-_

_(End Dreamscape)_

Yami was woken by the sound of the heart monitor flatlining. Yugi burst in with a team of doctors, and Tea was wheeled out of the room to the operating theatre, Yami's hand pulled out of hers. Yami and Yugi followed the doctors to the theatre's doors and were forced to sit and wait outside. They sat there for what Yami thought was hours, and all the while, he prayed. He prayed to Ra, and Buddha and Jehovah, and any other God he could think of. Yugi was there praying with him, and both were hoping against all odds that Tea would be OK. Hoping, praying, When the doctor finally emerged from the theatre, he had a stony, grim expression. He sat next to the two boys and spoke. "I'm sorry, but Miss Gardner died in the theatre. I am deeply, truly sorry for your loss." Yami, however, was gone before the doctor could say his apologies. He ran from the hospital, eyes streaming with tears, wishing, wishing he could block out all the pain and the sadness. Wishing he could block out the world. He ran as fast as he could as far as he could, in the pouring rain. The rain splashed onto Yami's face, the rainwater mixing with the tears. The rain drummed a staccato rhythm on his forehead, drumming a tattoo onto his skin. He had to make right of what he had done, but that was impossible, he had killed Tea. There was only one thing left for Yami to do, and it was clear in his mind. There are many ways one can take his own life, and plenty flashed before Yami. A bullet in the head, a drive off a cliff, an noose around a neck, even bleeding yourself to death. 'It's all my fault. All of it. Everything is my fault.'

Yugi had been following Yami, as soon as Yami had bolted, he picked up after him. Yugi could hear his wretched sobs, and see his desperation. It pained him to see his friend like this, blaming himself for something he had no control over. None of this, not the accident, not Tea's death had been Yami's fault. Yet he was blaming himself for it. Where was he going? Yugi recognised the street they were on, it was where his and Yami's apartment was, but why would he come here? Yugi saw the edge of Yami's jacket fly around the corner and into their apartment block. Yugi followed, and hearing the clacking of Yami's shoes on the tiled staircase, followed. He could hear Yami's quiet sobbing, and see his shadow trembling. Yami continued to climb up towards the roof.

'My fault. It's my fault. She's dead because of me. All me. All my fault. Everything.' Yami continued to climb the stairs. He reached the door to the roof and pushed it open. He ran out into the rain and collapsed. He curled up and cried. The rain that had collected on the floor soaked into his clothes, making them sodden and heavy. Yami got to his knees, weeping and shaking like a leaf. He practically crawled to the edge of the roof and stood, letting the rain hit him and the wind buffet him. He looked out into the void. And he stepped forward.

Yugi reached the roof to see Yami standing on the edge, on the precipice of the roof. He knew instantly what Yami was about to do. Yugi rushed forward, desperation lending him speed, and grasped for Yami's arm, his jacket, anything. But all that met Yugi's fingertips was the edge of Yami's Domino High blazer. Yugi looked over the edge to see Yami falling, an expression on his face Yugi couldn't decipher. Yugi collapsed to his knees, stupefied. Then, a second later, he heard the thud.

As Yami fell, the whole world seemed to slow. Or was it him that slowed, and the world kept going at a normal pace? Yami thought of his friends, and his own life, as he fell. He realised this was as close to flying as he would ever get, this plummet towards the ground. Flying... That was a nice thought. Yes.. perhaps, in another life, beyond this cold and cruel one, he would fly. Fly through the air, seeing the world with a different eye, Tea by his side.

Fin


End file.
